The return of Peep Show is cause for celebration. But why is it streaming online already?

Lovers of excruciatingly awkward dialogue rejoice – Peep Show returns to our screens this Friday, for its seventh series.

That doesn’t make it the longest-running British comedy series – to the infinite shame of BBC commissioning editors, even Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps managed eight seasons. But it is the longest-running good British comedy series. Home-grown comedy writers traditionally quit while they’re ahead – think of Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, The Office. The fact that Peep Show is not only still going after seven years, but is funnier than it’s ever been… well, that’s unprecedented.

How do I know it’s funnier than ever? Well, there’s the rub: I’ve already seen it. That’s because it’s been streaming all week, perfectly legally, on 4OD. David Mitchell (who plays Mark Corrigan in the show) pointed this out on Twitter. He said it made him “sad for TV as a medium”. I feel the same way. Let me explain why.

Now, I love Peep Show, perhaps more than is healthy. Just hearing the theme tune has me rolling around my living room floor, clapping and honking like a delighted seal. Last year I literally counted the days until Season Six started. And this year I intended to do the same, except… well, my resolve evaporated. How could I not watch it? It was right there on my laptop, just a few clicks away, a LOL-some siren song.

So I watched it, and enjoyed it. But now what? I can’t discuss the episode with anyone, because none of my friends have seen it. I could tell them about the bit with Super Hans and the faulty boiler, or the bit where Jez reads FHM aloud to a coma victim, but I might as well carve the plotline into a pumpkin with a dessert spoon for all the sense it’ll make to them.

This matters, because one of TV’s primary functions is to act as a social glue. That communal feeling is more important now than ever: it’s why millions of desperate souls huddle round The X Factor on a Saturday night. Far from eroding the universality of TV, social media magnifies it. People Tweet while they watch. TV therefore becomes a shared national event, unfolding in real time.

That can be a beautiful thing. But it depends on us all watching together. I’m no cobwebbed reactionary. The future of TV is online. In a few years there will be no distinction between the set in your living room, and the computer. Plus, catch-up TV is useful. By all means stream shows once they’ve been broadcast.

But let’s at least allow the communal thing to happen first, and privilege that above the fragmented, solitary experience. Sure, it’s nice to be able to cackle at Peep Show on the bus to work. But isn’t it so much more satisfying to imagine the entire nation belly-laughing as one on a Friday night?